Saturday, February 5, 2011

Wall Street ends slightly higher after the employment figures mixed

U.S. places closed on a small gain on Friday while the number of jobs created in January disappointed investors. Wall Street ended the week on a small rise on Friday after the publication of official statistics of the labor market. If the unemployment rate has dropped innattendue, the number of jobs created is below expectations. The market absorbed this report rather disappointing because the operators expect new measures to support the Federal Reserve as its chairman Ben Bernanke has already ruled that the institution should continue to support the economy. At the close, the Dow Jones gained 0.25% to 12,092 points, the Nasdaq is 0.56% at 2,769 points and the S & P 500 rose 0.29% to 1,311 points. On the statistics front, the U.S. economy created only 36,000 non-farm jobs in January, far short of 145,000 net new hoped by economists. In the private sector only 50,000 net new were recorded while the markets were betting on 155,000. In contrast, the unemployment rate fell 0.4 points to fall 9%, its highest level since April 2009. Economists had not anticipated this downturn, betting on a rate up slightly to 9.5%. But this decline is however to be largely on account of the evolution of the workforce. As for values, Constellation Energy rose 2.64% to 32.67 dollars. The energy company reported Friday a net profit of $ 160 million in the fourth quarter. Excluding items, this represents only 42 cents, well below the 58 cents expected by analysts. Its turnover rose slightly to 3.5 billion. The group also reiterated its forecast for the next two years. The insurer Aetna flies from 12.47% to 37.42 dollars after announcing an increase in its dividend. It goes from 4 cents to 60 cents per year. The insurer has also delivered targets well above expectations for 2011, focusing on earnings per share (EPS) of between 3.70 and $ 3.80, against a consensus of 3.27 dollars. In the fourth 2010, he reached 216 million dollars in profits, a performance in line with expectations. In contrast, Las Vegas Sands dips 8.45% to 46.03 dollars. The casino operator is penalized for having issued a disappointing sales at $ 2 billion against 2.1 billion expected by investors. The group is ironed in the green in the fourth quarter, with net earnings of $ 273 million. This is slightly higher than the consensus.